Cubic-PATCO pilot moves to Phase Two

Cubic Transportation Systems, Inc., which created the PATCO Wave & Pay ANYWHERE Visa® Prepaid Card, has announced Phase Two of the open payment pilot program. During this phase riders may use a plastic contactless Visa, MasterCard. or Discover card—or a virtual card in a wallet—to make payments at PATCO (Port Authority Transit Corp.) gates and parking lots.

"Riders will simply tap their cards and go," said Cubic, adding that the pilot program "is designed not only to speed riders through PATCO's stations" in Philadelphia and suburban New Jersey, "but also to gain valuable technical information on the best practices for deploying and operating future contactless payment systems in other transit systems". This will include Chicago, where Cubic is under contract to deliver an open payment system.

"Cubic is excited about Phase Two of the PATCO pilot," said Steve Shewmaker, president, Cubic Transportation Systems Worldwide. "This is all about making wallets slimmer and life for the transit agency and their customers even more convenient."

In 2011, bistate PATCO partnered with Cubic to create the first transit-agency branded, all contactless Visa prepaid card in the world. That prepaid payment card, the Wave & Pay ANYWHERE Card, debuted on September 26, 2011, as Phase One of the PATCO pilot program.

"We are pleased to continue our partnership with Cubic and Visa on this groundbreaking pilot," said Delaware River Port Authority (DRPA) CEO and PATCO President John J. Matheussen. "Open payment— combining a transit payment card with a full-service retail payment card—is the future of transit fare collection. The PATCO Wave & Pay ANYWHERE Visa Prepaid Card ensures that all of our riders have access to a new level of payment convenience and security."